Wirebound pallet

ABSTRACT

WIREBOUND PALLET FOR FORK-LIFT TRUCKS COMPRISING A SHELL HAVING FOUR SIDES FORMED BY CLEATS EXTENDING TRANSVERSELY OF THE FORK-LIFT TINES AND HAVING MITERED ENDS WHICH ABUT AT THE CORNERS TO FORM SPACED, OPEN CLEAT FRAMEWORKS, SLATS EXTENDING PERPENDICULARLY TO THE CLEATS AND ABUTTING THEIR OUTER SURFACES, BINDING WIRES ENCIRCLING THE SHELL IN LINE WITH THE CLEATS AND BEING SECURED BY STAPLES, WITH LOOP FASTENERS SECURING THE TWO ENDS OF EACH BINDING WIRE TOGETHER, AND A STRINGER EXTENDING PARALLEL TO THE SLATS AND ABUTTING THE INNER SURFACES OF THE CLEATS OF THE WIDE UPPER AND LOWER SIDES OF THE SHELL ALONG ITS CENTER LINE.

-Marcl'i' 23, 1971 K. F. vbls'lill'o'u WIREBOUND PALLET Filed June 26, 1969 INVENTOR l6, H 28 I6 L2" /8 18 IGAZMATTORNW 3,572,261 WIREBOUND PALLET Kimon F. Vasiliou, Covent Station, N.J., assignor to Stapling Machines C0., Rockaway, NJ. Filed June 26, 1969, Ser. No. 836,864 Int. Cl. B65d 19/18 US. Cl. 108--57 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Wirebound pallet for fork-lift trucks comprising a shell having four sides formed by cleats extending transversely of the fork-lift tines and having mitered ends which abut at the corners to form spaced, open cleat frameworks, slats extending perpendicularly to the cleats and abutting their outer surfaces, binding wires encircling the shell in line with the cleats and being secured by staples, with loop fasteners securing the two ends of each binding wire together, and a stringer extending parallel to the slats and abutting the inner surfaces of the cleats of the wide upper and lower sides of the shell along its center line.

This invention relates to a pallet for use with fork-lift trucks.

The invention provides a strong, rigid and durable yet extremely light weight and inexpensive pallet. The pallet is collapsible so that it may be stored or shipped flat, in nested pairs, but may be readily set up. The cost of the pallet is reduced by using an almost irreducible minimum amount of wooden material and by fabrication on highspeed automatic wirebound box-making machines. The cost of the pallet is thus sufficiently low that the pallet may even be considered a disposable or single-use item to be shipped one-way with palletized package loads and not returned by the consignee.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an illustrative pallet embodying features of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the wirebound blank or mat from which the pallet of FIG. 1 is assembled.

FIG. 3 is an end view of the assembled pallet of FIG. 1.

As may be seen in FIG. 2, the wirebound mat consists of four side sections including a top section 10, a bottom section 12 and two vertical side sections 14. Each of these side sections is formed of four spaced cleats 16 which extend lengthwise of the mat with the mitered ends of the cleats aligned with and adjacent to the proximate ends of the corresponding cleats on the adjacent side sections.

Abutting the outer faces of the cleats 16 are spaced slats 18 which extend perpendicularly to the cleats across the full width of the mat. The four side sections are foldably secured together by binding wires 20 which overlie the outer surface of the mat along its full length, in line with the cleats 16, and are secured by spaced staples 22 driven astride the binding wires 20 through the slats 18, where present, and into the cleats 16.

The two ends of each of the binding wires 20 are provided with loop fasteners 24 and 26, respectively, which are formed by bending the end portion of the binding wire back on itself, forming the end into a prong, driving this prong through the adjacent slat 18 and clinching it over against the under surface thereof.

As is well known in the industry, wirebound mats of the type shown in FIG. 2 may be formed in conventional high speed automatic wirebound box-making machines in which the properly assembled cleats and slats are transported by continuously moving conveyor bands beneath a transverse bank of stitching units which drive staples into the box parts at proper intervals under the control of switch-actuating elements adjustably secured to the con- United States Patent 3,572,261 Patented Mar. 23, 1971 veyor bands. The mats issue from the stitching machine in a continuous string interconnected by the binding wires. This string of mats is fed stepwise into a loop fastener machine which severs the binding wires in the intervals between the mats, and forms the resulting wire ends into loop fasteners at each end of each mat.

Thus the mats are made almost entirely automatically with much less labor than is required in making conventional nailed pallets.

To assemble a mat to form a pallet, as shown in FIG. 1, the mat is folded around to form an oblong rectangular shell, with the mitered ends of the cleats :16 on adjacent sides abutting at the four corners of the shell to form four open rectangular cleat frameworks. The loop fasteners on the two ends of each of the binding wires come into opposition with one another at the closing corner of the shell, and the loop fasteners 26 on the short vertical side 14 of the shell, being somewhat narrower than the mating loop fasteners 24 on the wide top side 10 of the shell, are threaded through the latter and bent downwardly around them and against the outer surface of the vertical side 14 to secure the shell in assembled relation. The loop fasteners may be thus interengaged to impose and maintain the desired tension on the binding wires by means of a simple hand tool or a conventional, motor driven automatic wirebound box closing machine of the type used for volume production in packing plants.

To provide additional longitudinal strength and rigidity, a wooden stringer 28 extends parallel to the slats 18 across the full length of the shell along its center line, with the upper and lower surfaces of the stringer abutting the inner surfaces of the cleats 16 on the top and bottom sides 10 and 12. The stringer 28 is secured in place by nails or staples driven through the cleats into the stringer.

This completes the assembly of a pallet which provides two-way entry of the tines of the fork lift through either open end of the shell.

This structure is extremely strong and rigid, so that it will remain substantially flat even though it is heavily loaded and even though the tines of the fork lift do not extend for the full length of the pallet, so that the pallet overhangs the outer ends of the tines, and also may be wide enough to project beyond the tines at either side.

The longitudinal stiffness is contributed principally by the single slats 18 which cover each of the vertical sides 14 and by the stringer 28, while the transverse stiifness is contributed by the cleats 16, which are in direct engagement with the fork-lift tines.

This pallet is not only much lighter than a conventional nailed pallet of comparable stiffness but also has much greater lateral stability against racking into the shape of a parallelogram, due to the mitered shape of the cleat ends and the compressive hoop effect of the tensioned binding wires.

The reduction in the amount of wood required and the susceptibility to high speed automatic fabrication in widely available machines enables substantial savings in production costs.

The mats may of course be stored and shipped fiat, preferably in nested pairs with the cleats facing inwardly and staggered, to reduce cube. They may be readily assembled and knocked down for storage or shipment prior to reuse, although their low cost makes a one-way disposable pallet a commercial practicality even for shipping relatively inexpensive merchandise.

I claim:

1. A wirebound pallet for fork-lift trucks comprising an oblong rectangular shell formed of four side sections, each having a plurality of cleats aligned transversely of the direction of entry of the fork-lift tines and abutting at the corners of the shell to form a series of open rectangular cleat frameworks for receiving said tines from either end of said shell, slats extending parallel to the direction of entry of said tines and abutting the outer surface of said cleats on all four sides of said shell, each of the two narrower vertical side sections being covered by a single slat serving as a longitudinal stiffening member, said four side sections being foldably secured together by binding wires overlying said cleats and secured thereto by staples driven astride said binding wires, through said slats where present and into said cleats, the two ends of each of said binding wires being tightly secured together at one corner of said shell, and a stringer extending parallel to said slats along the center of said shell and abutting and being secured to the inner faces of the cleats on the wide upper and lower side sections.

2. A pallet as described in claim 1 in which the two ends of each said binding wires are releasably secured References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,651,486 9/1953 Woodward l0857 2,931,610 5/1960 Trent l0857 2,941,770 6/1960 Bonslett l0857 2,982,507 5/1961 Woodward l0857 3,039,726 6/1962 Woodward l0857 3,227,107 1/1966 Caplan 108-51 BOBBY R. GAY, Primary Examiner G. O. FINCH, Assistant Examiner 

